Despite the Ashes debacle, English cricket's popularity has not been as high for years, and drawing on this Sky Sports has swooped for rights to show the Indian Premier League (IPL) exclusively live for the first time.

The number of active subscribers to India's six private direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV platforms was just 56%, or 34.26 million, of the 60.71 million registered total at the end of September 2013, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).